Sick To My Stomach

One of my oldest friends has been working for a fairly successful small company which tests mechanical automotive components for the Ford Corporation in Troy, Michigan. Basically, they take the mechanical components which Ford designs and then devise all sorts of demonic tests to see what it takes to make them self destruct. My friend was basically trained as a welder, but in the course of his employment has acquired a full range of specialized skills....as I said, this company is pretty solid as far as their business goes. But about 4 years ago, he told me that the company was being decentralized...and much of the physical work was going to be done in China! Most of the Michigan work force was layed off. The company is still centered in Troy, but they do most of their actual work in China with low cost Chinese labor. My friend was offered the option of going to China to "train" Chinese workers to do his job. Luckily for him, he is considered valuable enough to the Michigan organization to still be working.
At the time, I thought this was pretty strange, but I hear of things like this happening all of the time. He mentioned the name of the company which had acquired his firm at the time and it was only recently that I made the connection: Bain Capital.
In other words, in 2007, Bain Capital took control of a small successful highly specialized automotive tech firm in Michigan, fired the Union work force so they could move the jobs to China to make money. Clearly, at that time, Mittens Romney was still CEO of Bain Capital. That's what they do to make money. They systematically dismantle successful American businesses and relocate them to parts of the world with out Unions and the cost of paying American workers a decent wage.
Though Mittens has been able to disassociate himself through the use of smoke and mirrors from the present management of this curiously exclusive Mormon enterprise, he still receives a substantial income and is still technically a CEO of the firm.
I saw an article in the Guardian over the weekend and wondered why I hadn't seen it in any American press. It's almost the carbon copy of what had happened to my friends Troy, Michigan company, but it is happening now and it is Bain Capitol that is perpetrating the crime. In Freeport, Illinois, Paul Harris writes about a profitable, competitive auto-parts plant has been bought out by Bain Capital, who have literally shipped the factory to China, and who have extended the "kindness" to the American workers who will lose their jobs of a few extra weeks' worth of work training their Chinese replacements. Mitt Romney owns millions of dollars' worth of equity in the Bain fund that is shipping good jobs overseas, and stands to make a tidy profit from this. 
"I understand business needs to make a profit. But this product has always made a ton of money. It's just that they think it is not enough money. They are greedy," said Tom Gaulraupp, who has put in 33 years at the plant and is facing the prospect of becoming jobless at the age of 54. 

Mark Schreck
the second time his job moved to China

Mark Shreck, a 36-year-old father-of-three, confessed he was one of the few workers not surprised at the layoffs, as this is the second time his job has moved to China. "I feel this is what companies do nowadays," he said. Freeport mayor George Gaulrapp
The Freeport workers have appealed to Bain and Romney to save their plant. The local town council, several Illinois politicians and the state's Democratic governor have all rallied to their cause. "This company is competitive globally. They make a profit here. But Bain Capital decided to squeeze it a little further. That is not what capitalism is meant to be about," said Freeport mayor George Gaulrapp, 52.
The anger towards Bain and Romney is palpable. Romney has become the target for the emotions of a community who built lives based on the idea of a steady manufacturing job: a concept out of place in the sort of fluid buy-and-sell world from which Bain prospers. "I didn't have a clue what Bain was before this happened," said Cheryl Randecker, 52. "Now when I hear Romney speak it makes me sick to my stomach."